The Illinois volleyball team looked down and out trailing two sets to none against then – No. 6 Michigan on Saturday, but that was before senior Kylie McCulley turned the match upside down.

“She carried us,” head coach Kevin Hambly said. “When she gets going, if you don’t have a real good plan on her, I think torch it. She did things that I’ve never seen her do on a consistent basis. We didn’t have a chance to win without her contribution.”

McCulley equaled her career-high with 22 kills against the Wolverines, leading the Illini back to defeat Michigan in five sets. She didn’t stop on the offensive end though, as she also contributed 11 digs.

“During the game, I didn’t realize that I was going to do that,” McCulley said, referring to her career high in kills. “It feels awesome just to be able to give that to the team and help us get a really big win against a really good team.”

Down two sets on the road, the Illini needed someone to step forward, and that’s when the senior showed her leadership.

“The biggest thing for us was just realizing that it wasn’t over and that we could still go out there and keep competing and take the next three sets,” McCulley said. “The team needed me, and I needed to do my role in order for us to win.”

The Orange and Blue came out fighting to take the game to five sets. McCulley became the team’s attacking force in the final three sets, bringing a sense of ease to her teammates.

“There was one ball that I set her up and it was not a good set, and she just got up and crushed it,” junior setter Hillary Haen said. “I felt really comfortable after that because I knew no matter what I gave her she was probably going to score.”

McCulley was at her best in the final set, when she exploded for three kills in the Illini’s final four points as they improved their Big Ten record to 2-2.

“She just really turned it on,” Haen said. “She was playing at an extremely high level. I think she’s probably the only one on a playing level high enough to take those shots. Kylie was definitely the hot hitter this weekend.”

Hambly said this has been a long time coming for the Clinton, Ill., native.

“She was just tooling the block, hitting the shots that we’ve been working on since the minute she got here,” Hambly said. “It all came together in that match. She passed well, she hit well, she blocked well, she did everything for us.”

McCulley is ready to turn in more performances like her match-saving exploits in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“I’m definitely looking forward to continuing to work on my offense,” McCulley said. “It would definitely help the team out if I could come away from weekends with that many kills for the offense, and I definitely think it’s something I can do, I just got to keep working hard to reach it.”